What is Inspiration ? 113 



sceptical communities of antiquity we find one of 

 the most enlightened and sceptical minds habitu- 

 ally explaining the suggestions of its own supreme 

 common sense by ascribing them to the dictation 

 of an indescribable external agency. The dalmch 

 nion, or familiar warning spirit, of Sokrates shows 

 how consonant with the general theories of the 

 ancients was the conception of inspiration in its 

 full and literal sense. In the stage of culture 

 thus exemplified every bright stroke of genius was 

 interpreted as the result of inspiration, though it 

 was naturally in cases of supreme practical im- 

 portance that the interpretation was most forcibly 

 felt and most thoroughly believed. The poet's 

 invocation to the Muse was at first no doubt much 

 more than a faded metaphor ; but it is beyond 

 question that men like Isaiah and Mohammed be- 

 lieved themselves to be mere mouth-pieces of the 

 living word of God. 



The belief in inspiration, as thus generally 

 cherished in ancient times, seems to have grown 

 out of a more primitive belief in possession, which 

 is found everywhere current among savage and 

 barbarous tribes, and which, until within a few 

 generations, has maintained itself even in the 

 Christian world. The subject has been treated 

 in an elaborate and masterly manner by Mr. Ty- 



